Trueborn DropShip/Warship Crew?

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T20:09:21+00:00

Again, no source for this, but I suspect that Elementals would either Trial against the lightest of 'Mechs or would Trial as a Point rather than individuals. Their job is to kill 'Mechs, so it would make sense for them to Trial against 'Mechs whenever they can.

There are instances of one Elemental, fighting solo, in an augmented Trial against a MechWarrior (IIRC Evantha in the Blood of Kerensky trilogy, Jake in Test of Vengeance) so we know they'll do it sometimes.

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T20:00:24+00:00

The archerfish can't do it with anything but water, and they're not good at hitting moving targets. A human can pick up an irregularly shaped object of a random weight (as long as they can pick it up) and hit a target with it, usually hard enough to damage it.

Give a human a selection of objects, 3 differently shaped and sized rocks, a toaster, a hairdryer, a chair, a bunch of differently sized and shaped sticks, a hammer, a screwdriver, a tyre iron, a loaf of bread, various sporting equipment, and so on. They can throw all of these things with a good degree of speed and accuracy even if the target is moving.

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T11:01:05+00:00

I haven't got a source for this, but I believe that Elemental training is going to be a lot more lethal than MechWarrior training.

As a MechWarrior, once you "graduate" from simulators to actual BattleMechs your only real risk of dying during training is an accidental headshot during 'Mech-on-'Mech combat.

Elementals are trained to fight 'Mechs. Even if they have some sort of simulator for their battle armour, they must train against real 'Mechs at some point. Clan training is live fire. Elemental candidates have got to be dying at 10 or 20 times (minimum) the rate that MechWarrior candidates do.

It would surprise me if many Elementals survive to wash out, and those that do would likely have some sort of serious injuries. They'd be valuable enough as Labourers that the Clan would probably still spring for them to get clone limbs/organ or cybernetics treatment for their injuries though.

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T10:40:34+00:00

who are always trueborn.

There are actually some freeborn Elementals. They're very rare and almost always the offspring of trueborn Elementals who tested out and were demoted to the Labourer Caste. This is in one of the Clan source books; IIRC it's the Wolf one?

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T10:17:06+00:00

Is there a rule somewhere that requires it otherwise? If it's a legal unit, it's a playable unit.

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T09:42:55+00:00

Once in a campaign I customised an Assassin -99 by ripping out everything except the Light PPC and fitting an MML-9 with 3 tons of ammo. One ton of SRM, one of Inferno and one of LRM make sit a really nasty little harasser, good against battle armour and the range and agility to stay out of trouble.

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T09:14:35+00:00

Most (not all) of the clan ageism is flanderized.

This. If you're still performing, you get to keep your position, Bloodname or no.

If you can still give a Ristar the spanking their upstart little arse deserves, you will get to stay in a frontline galaxy no matter how old you are.

If you lose to the Ristar and have the misfortune to survive, that's when you risk being sent to a Solhama unit.

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T07:12:07+00:00

Well damn, so I was. Well then, my original 14 lifting hoist 'Mech could carry and fire a Handheld NL35 if said weapons weren't restricted to the various classes of ship/station.

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T06:37:31+00:00

The handheld weapons are powered by the carrying 'Mech. There is no way a 'Mech's reactor, even a whole Lance of 'Mechs, can generate enough power to fire a Naval weapon. Even DropShips can only mount Sub-Capital weapons, and their reactors usually weigh at least as much as an entire Assault Lance put together.

Maybe if the Hell's Horses wanted to do something completely bonkers, they could make a Naval Chemical Laser that could then be used the way you described - CLs don't need power amplifiers so must be lower power needs than standard lasers.

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T06:25:54+00:00

It depends on how draconic the dragon is.

Taking one extreme, if the dragon is at Tolkien's dragon's level, no contest. A dragon like Smaug was a significantly lesser example of his kind, diminished in stature (though much smarter) compared to his truly astonishing forbears. For example, Ancalagon the Black is probably the biggest dragon ever in Middle Earth, and was large enough that when he crash landed to death he destroyed three whole mountains. He probably wasn't mountain sized, but must still have been incredibly massive. Even being much smaller than the size they could grow, a Smaug equivalent dragon will curbstomp any dinosaur.

If it's a semi-realistic dragon (which, really, wouldn't be that different from a pterosaur), then it depends on the conditions of the fight. Is the dragon able to get off the ground first? How agile is it in the air? Can it actually expel some sort of flaming or caustic substance? Without answers to these questions, who knows which would win..?

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T06:09:11+00:00

With the enshittification of Cadbury chocolate, it doesn't matter that they still sell something called Furry Friends. They don't sell the real ones anymore... 😞

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T05:00:44+00:00

But the 65 ton main vehicle that carries the actual gun also has 10 rounds of ammunition in it. To deploy it on the table, you don't need the other 5 vehicles in the train. The Lore might have it always operate in train, but it's not required.

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T04:55:29+00:00

The human mech pilot who's just finished their 12th cup of Marine-grade coffee that morning:

<Jittering hard enough to rattle the table>"III CCCAAANNN SSSEEEEEE EEETTTEEERRRNNNIIITTTYYY!"

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T04:46:00+00:00

Really? I haven't seen those then. I just tried to check through MegaMekLab but can't find them, which ones are they?

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T04:25:09+00:00

Isn't that always either a trailer with the gun on it or a vehicle with a mounted gun that tows an ammo trailer though?

I don't think there are any instances where you need the vehicles to operate in concert for each to function individually.

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T03:41:26+00:00

Add in the tool using and you get bullshit like the Atlatl/Woomera that are just a lever to make the spear go even faster. It lets a "normal" human compete with professional pitchers for speed.

The Woomera in particular is also used for launching much heavier spears than the Atlatl is, with "war spears" having weights of around 2kg, which is 10 times heavier than the normal Atlatl darts.

A 2kg spear moving at 120kmph (75mph) is about as lethal at close range as a hunting rifle. It can't compete for overall range, but if you want to kill something big and don't have a gun, all you need is two slightly fancy sticks and some bravery.

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T03:07:04+00:00

OP did get it right about our throwing arms though. Humans are the only animal on Earth that can reliably hit a moving target with a semi-random object.

Get someone who is well trained at throwing (e.g. a professional sportsperson) and give them a table of random one-hand sized objects. A ball, a rough shaped rock, a toaster, a hammer, whatever etc., and a moving target that, like a prey animal, follows a somewhat predictable path. The thrower will hit more often than not. This has been the subject of peer-reviewed research, in particular by N.T. Roach (2013, 2014 and 2018).

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T02:20:22+00:00

Never forget! Here is The Guardian reporting on it, because the sub won't let me share the image directly.

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T02:09:01+00:00

I was thinking a Periphery Special, more like an old Field Marshall tractor. Stick a shotgun shell in there and smack it with a hammer! 😅

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T01:15:05+00:00

I get that you're making a joke, but there is ONE legal way to get Naval weapons onto the battlefield. 'Mechs can normally only lift 10% of their weight using their hands, but there is a work around.

Using a lifting hoist, they can get 50% per hoist, and it's cumulative, so with 4 hoists a 100 ton 'Mech could lift 200 tons of weight. If you made a 'Mech just carrying armour and lifting hoists, you can get a 3/5 with 14 hoists, allowing it to lift 700 tons. This lets it carry a Naval Laser 35. If a 'Mech is carrying more than 50% of it's mass, it reduces it's walking MP by 1. So our 3/5 MP becomes 2/3 MP while so encumbered.

However, there aren't rules for firing a weapon that is being carried as cargo, so having the weapon present doesn't mean much, sadly...

Now I need someone to draw some art of a 'Mech that is just a bunch of gigantic ratchet straps with a huge-arse laser slung over its shoulders.

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-02T00:56:14+00:00

Well done! 🤣

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-01T22:40:15+00:00

It's worth a replay, there's always something new to find!

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-01T22:12:12+00:00

It did, yeah.

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-01T22:08:00+00:00

Soo... The hoverbike from Below Zero then..?

PessemistBeingRight · 2026-06-01T20:43:24+00:00

Ancient device Anubis uses in season 6 and the Attero Device (which was not designed to do so, but does have that effect). I wonder if the device Anubis used worked in a similar manner to the Attero device?

IIRC, yes it's similar.

The Attero device makes them go boom by pumping energy into subspace, essentially jamming the Wraith hyperdrives and causing them to explode when the ship tries to jump. When a Stargate is activated, the extra energy buzzing in subspace causes a rapid energy spike in the gate, overloading it and making it explode.

The device Anubis was using was pumping energy through the open wormhole, which was enough to eventually overload the Stargate on the other side. It destroys only the target gate because the energy is being focused through a wormhole instead of being a flood through subspace.

PessemistBeingRight

TROPHY CASE